The Ducks came to prove that they could compete with one of the Western Conference’s best teams on Sunday. At this point, that’s who will greet them in the playoffs, if they even get there.
More than that, the Ducks just wanted two points against the San Jose Sharks. Old pal Travis Moen and old foe Evgeni Nabokov made sure it didn’t happen.
The recently-traded Moen redirected a blind pass into the net, and Nabokov stopped 34 shots in the Sharks’ 1-0 win before 17,511 at Honda Center on Sunday.
“Those guys have one of the best records in the league and we have no problem playing against them, so that’s a good sign,” Teemu Selanne said of the Sharks, who trail the Detroit Red Wings by one point for the Presidents Trophy. “We just have to stay confident and use this as a confidence boost. There was no way that they were better than us.”
Nabokov “was standing on his head,” in the words of Selanne, and was the main reason why Anaheim couldn’t solve a sluggish San Jose team playing the second of back-to-back games. Selanne banged a shot off the post with 2:52 left in the third period — as close as any Duck came to a goal — and looked ready to break his stick in two after that final frustration.
The shutout, Nabokov’s 46th in a nine-year career, was his third win over the Ducks this season. He entered the game 20-15 with a 2.27 lifetime goals-against average against Anaheim.
“Nabby did a real good job early in the game making the first save, not leaving anything around,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “That allowed us to slow it down, get a faceoff and eventually skate ourselves into the game.”
In contrast to Nabokov’s performance, Moen’s goal with 1:02 left in the second period was hardly a thing of beauty.
Checker Jamie McGinn threw a no-look backhander toward the net, where Moen got enough stick on the puck to re-direct it off Ryan Whitney’s jersey and off the inside of the post. The goal was Moen’s second since he was traded to the Sharks on March 4, along with Kent Huskins, after three-plus seasons in Anaheim.
It was also the only shot of 30 that fooled Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller, who was making his third straight start.
“I didn’t even know it was him,” Hiller said. “It was just an unlucky bounce.”
To the Ducks’ credit, the game could have gone either way — an encouraging loss, if there is such a thing with 13 games left in the regular season and the Ducks last among six teams battling for two playoff spots.
“Right now I think every loss is bad for us,” Hiller said. “We didn’t deserve to lose today.”
Since a humiliating 6-0 loss in Boston on Feb. 26, Anaheim has played six consecutive one-goal games. But they’ve won just two of those, and could not take advantage of a Sharks team mired in a 2-5 stretch, worn down by a marathon shootout victory over the Kings a night earlier.
By contrast, the Ducks had enjoyed three days off since an emotional overtime win over Vancouver on Wednesday. Selanne, for one, thought they improved their game against the Sharks.
Once again, the only thing that was missing was the two points.
“I hope everybody understands that if we play like this, there’s no team who can beat us,” Selanne said. “We just have to believe that and play like that.”
“Everything’s in our own hands. We can control our own destiny.”
Game summaryhere; event summaryhere.
